#18 Memphis knocks off UNI in Bahamas

The University of Northern Iowa men's basketball team could not hang on to a 14-point first half lead and dropped a 52-47 decision to the No. 19-ranked Memphis Tigers in the seventh-place game of the Battle 4 Atlantis tournament.

UNI (3-3 overall) blistered the net early with six 3-pointers and took a 26-12 lead with 4:34 left in the first half. Senior forward Jake Koch put the Panthers on the board with his 3-pointer at 19:09 of the first half. Senior guard Marc Sonnen hit another triple with 17:06 to give UNI a 6-2 lead.

Memphis's Chris Crawford hit a triple of his own to tie the game at 12-12 with 12:25 left in the first half. UNI then went on a 14-0 run that included four 3-pointers, the last of which came from junior forward Chip Rank. Rank's 3-pointer gave UNI a 26-14 lead with 4:34 remaining before half.

Memphis (3-2 overall) did not score from the 12:25 mark of the first half until Crawford hit his third 3-pointer of the half with 4:02 remaining.

"I thought we played our best 20 minutes of basketball in the first half in our time here," UNI head coach Ben Jacobson said. "We needed more because that was a key stretch to end the half. If we had kept it at 12 to 14 points we would have had a great chance to win the game."

The Tigers closed the half on a 10-0 run to trim UNI's advantage to 26-22 at the break.

UNI increased the lead to six at 30-24 following a Seth Tuttle layup with 17:05 left in the game. Memphis then went on a 13-2 run to take a 37-32 lead with 9:53 remaining.

UNI regained the lead at 41-40 after a 6-0 run that included four points from sophomore guard Deon Mitchell and an offensive putback from Rank with 5:30 left in the game.

Unfortunately, the Panthers did not score again until Mitchell hit a free throw with 32.7 seconds left. Memphis used a 8-0 run in that stretch to open up a 48-41 lead. UNI cut the lead back to five on two free throws from Mitchell, but a Sonnen missed a 3-pointer that would have cut the lead to two with 24 seconds left.

UNI was led by Mitchell's game-high tying 18 points and five assists. Anthony James led the Panthers with five rebounds. Sonnen led the squad with three steals.

"We were excited to get the call to play in this tournament," Jacobson said. "We couldn't be more excited knowing the field. It's good to take on challenges early in the season. This isn't something we'll shy away from."

UNI will return home and play again Saturday (Dec. 1) against Milwaukee at 7 p.m. in the McLeod Center.